Warm chard salad with bacon dressing and roasted chicken

We’re back! And more than a little bit woozy in the head with jet lag, one moment feeling perfectly energetic but practically cross-eyed the next. We’re very happy to be reunited with our darling little bundle of fur who, quite adorably, almost went into shock upon seeing us again and spent at least half an hour doing nothing but pressing up against us to lick our hands and knees while making tiny, excited whining noises.

But, otherwise it’s a little hard to be back from such a lovely vacation. While we were in Norway, most evenings we found ourselves bundling up in parkas to stay warm in the late night sun. Back in Boston, we practically can’t go outside until the sun has gone down and the stifling heat begins to dissipate. I have to admit, I prefer the arctic circle version of summer. Here it does smell of sticky, muggy, blossom-filled memories of summer camp nights, though, which I kind of like.

There’s a lot to catch up on. But, I’m reframing my long to-do list as a record of all the neat things I get to do rather than have to do, and by golly, I think it’s actually working to help to keep the no-more-vacation-slump at bay.

A slump that would be easy to slip into, that one, as our trip was quite filled with happy days and nights spent with family and friends. There was plenty of rain but also several endlessly sunny days. There was the ever gorgeous scenery, and of course I got to fill up on all my favorite foods: hotdogs with lefse, skolebrod, boller, waffles, and enough ice cream, berries, and smoked salmon to sate even the most ravenous troll (if only trolls would prefer such things to goats and hapless humans!).

Rather than spending all of our time at the cabin, which is what most summers entail (and happily so!), this summer we went off on a little tour of the west coast, along with Joel’s parents and a close friend. Joel is a quarter Norwegian, his father half, so we went to visit the area where their family had come from, to walk the streets of the lilliputian town where a great-great-great(or some such)-grandfather had been mayor, to find the street sign bearing the family name.

I reflected a great deal on family history as we sat sunning ourselves on ferry rides across fjords. I think we can’t help but be interested in our family’s story, the tales of the parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and so on that led eventually to each of us. We must feel, at least a bit, that if we know that history, see those places, perhaps we will understand our own selves better. And, I think every family story is somehow exciting, full of happenstance, luck, intrigue, close calls. Looking at history, assembling flurries of facts neatly into tales, paints a picture of how incredibly unlikely it is that anyone of us should be where we are, and how necessary. Each of us somehow becomes simultaneously a total accident and totally preordained. I don’t really understand it, but I find it odd and wondrous.

But, now here we are. Back.

Being back calls for eating some back from vacation food, and when I get home from traveling I very frequently find myself craving roast chicken and salad. Who knows why, but I sometimes think that roasting a chicken truly makes a home a home. So, this dish is the perfect welcome back.

It’s based on a salad made by one of our local restaurants. Joel and I became extremely addicted to it as the solution to the we-just-got-home-and-have-no-groceries-but-we’re-ravenous dilemma that is frequently a result of going out of town. But then the restaurant stopped making it – horrors! – and the only way to feed our craving for it was to make it myself.

It’s an intensely green and leafy salad, a slightly intimidating pile of chard. But the tough blow of the chard is softened and smoothed by a generous dousing of warm bacon vinaigrette. The chard goes into the pan where the vinaigrette has been made and gets tossed just long enough to wilt it into submissiveness and to coat each bit of leaf with the silky, salty, smokey dressing. The result is marvelous.

Then you mound the chard onto plates and trick it out big time with crunchy bacon bits, toasted pecans, sweet mouthfuls of fruit, and generous hunks of still warm roasted chicken. The chicken gives the salad the substance of a hearty meal, and the bacon, as always, lends a touch of decadence. The salad in the restaurant came with dried cranberries, but I always found they were a bit too candy-like and came in an excessive quantity. So, I replaced them with some quickly pickled cherries (the solution, also, to the very end of a bag of cherries that had been neglected for too long and was headed south fast).

The restaurant version of the salad also includes a poached egg, which I highly recommend, as the runny yolk slithers and slides all over the chard and chicken, deliciously golden and custardy. (It also helps to prevent the potential fuzzy mouth that leaves like chard and spinach can give you, which some people really dislike, but which has never bothered me much.) However, given the number of runny eggs I had eaten in the week leading up to our trip and on our trip as well, I decided to leave it off. It’s perfect both ways.

Preheat your oven to 425F. Put your chicken legs into a roasting pan and sprinkle well with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until completely cooked through (40-45 min. – you can cut into one to test for doneness). Remove from the oven and set aside to cool, and in the meantime you can prep the chard. Alternatively, you can grill the chicken until cooked through.

As soon as the chicken is cool enough to handle (you want it still to be warm) remove it from the bones (snack on the crispy skin!) and shred it into generously bite sized pieces. Put in a bowl and set aside in a warm place (like next to the oven).

Heat a very large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon bits and cook until brown and crispy. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon bits and transfer them to a paper towel lined plate. Keep the drippings in the pan and add the olive oil, the shallot, and a generous pinch of salt.

Cook the shallot until softened, about 3 minutes. Then, turn the heat down to low and stir in the vinegar, the maple syrup, and mustard, mixing well to combine. Add in the chard and cook for one to two minutes, until just wilted, tossing it all the while to coat it well with the dressing. Taste and toss with more salt and some pepper to taste.

Depending on how many people you’re serving, divide the chard between 2 or 3 plates. Divide the chicken and the bacon bits between the plates, then arrange a small handful of pickled cherries (or dried fruit) on each plate. Finally, sprinkle with chopped pecans.

If desired, poach or fry one egg per person until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny (generally 3-4 minutes). Place an egg on top of each salad. Serve!

One of my favourite things about coming home is getting back in the kitchen for something familiar and comforting. This looks like the perfect combination of the two without being too heavy for summer.

[…] home with me. I had just seen pickled cherries (something I’ve never tried before) used on the five and spice blog (which rocks), and was really intrigued by the idea. Growing up, we sometimes had cherries […]

It’s so interesting that this recipe & this post & this time in my life met in this moment. I’m on a healing diet for an autoimmune condition, so my love of food blogs is challenging, because so often the recipes contain ingredients I can’t eat. This recipe is completely “legal” on my diet. (Yay!) Then you write about family history, ancestors, and how it has affected who we are today. I’ve been reading a lot about genetics and epigenetics lately. Genetic theories are changing to say that in addition to inheriting physical characteristics, we also inherit emotions and the challenges our ancestors faced. I found that ovewhelming, until I also considered that we must inherit the good as well as the bad: the love, the passion, the peace, the joy, the bliss, the magical moments. And if epigenetics consist of turning on a disease gene through a negative experience, it also embraces turning it off again through multi-layered embracing of positive experiences, in the here & now and also the past. So my food is part of my healing, but ancestral thoughts and meditations play their part as well. Since I’m getting better, I’d say both are good medicine, and this recipe (and your post) fit perfectly. Thank you.

Synchronicity! I definitely think things align like that, and I also definitely believe in the new discoveries about how our ancestry and the environments our ancestors were in influence what we are today. I think that’s why you can never recommend a one size fits all healthiest diet, for example. Good luck with your dietary changes and your condition. It is no fun to work through these things, but it’s also totally worth it to put in the effort to figure it out and make the changes.

This….THE choice for dinner tonight!!! Stunning…great combination of color, texture …and the “warm” factor when figuring in salad meals when it’s snowing outside!! Two questions….could I possibly sub in fresh spinach for the chard if unavailable in my local market? AND…could I possibly use the roasted chicken in my fridge for this recipe?! Thanks so much for this marvelous recipe and any potential enlightenment!

Oops…forgot to ask if fresh pineapple could be a potential sub for the cherries (could I possibly use your “pickle” technique/recipe for this?) I ask this because it is snowing in a major way…and I am too chicken to bare the cold and head to the market! Thank you in advance for any advice …and I am a new, bonafide fan of your blog!

Thank you, thank you AND thank you for the numerous responses to my numerous questions!!…I did make this last week…using the substitutions for what I had on hand….and I wanted you to know that this was a complete “win”…for me and the tribe!! This really “clicked” with everyone…and will be going into my permanent “repertoire” for dinner or lunch tried/approved selection!